TitaniumTT's I hope I make it to DGRR '09 Build

[TitaniumTT]

So I guess it's time for an update -

Many a long night has been spent sorting out little issues but most of them are dead and gone.

Over the weekend there was a bad drivetrain vibe that developed while I was getting some breakin miles on her. I knew the rear wheel bearings were bad so we went ahead and replaced those, what a fricken nightmare. The bearing wistle was gone but the vibe remained. So we started jokeying around tires because mine are about 10 years old, literally. Vibe remained... now we're getting annoyed. Swap the driveshaft (mainly because it was on there so tight we had to beat the piss out of it to get it off the pinion plange, I figured we might have done some damage....) a little better but it was still there. Now we're pissed. So right after we swapped the driveshaft my buddy and I went back to the annex, back up on the stands she went and he helped out until midnight and I carried on until 2:30 in the morning swapping the rear out and double checking EVERYTHING else on the fricken car. Vibe was finally gone. So I went to sleep.

Woke up around 8:30 and got on the road. Plan was to meet Ihor @ IRP @ 10 and pick up my 140 amp alt, and then head over to meet Dave @ KDR for some dyno tuning.... well driving through Jersey I started to get this nasty rotten egg smell. I figured it was just Jersey When I got to IRP I shut the car off and heard this sizzling noise coming from behind me. The Optima redtop that I relocated to the passenger bin was scalding hot to the touch, fuming and just a generally unhappy battery. Soooooo we let the car.... and bat cool down a bit, did a little troubleshooting and said eff it.... Ihor swapped the alt right there for me. Great guy, pleasure to deal with and the alt of course kicks ass. Where as before I had 14.5+ volts and the voltometer neddle bouncing with whatever music I had playing at the time, the new alt holds 13.5 volts rock steady regardless of the lights, wipers, heater, fogs, stereo it doesn't matter, it just stays.

So with Ihors help I got back on the road and off to KDR. While we were swapping the alt I noticed that my charge pipe had broken in half..... cheap chinese aluminum didn't like the temps used for the ceramic coating I guess and it became brittle and cracked, then broke. HUGE boost leak. So I nursed her over to KDR where we put a coupler on it so we could at least tune her.

After sorting through some mechanical issues with the TB sticking EVER so slightly and a few calls back and forth to Motec to figure out why the BAC wasn't turning off and keeping the idle at 1600.... we started making some pulls. First pull..... 131 hp @ 1lb After some troubleshooting (like 2 minutes) we figured out that in my sleep deprived state I got the lines from the boost and vac chambers crossed. (Good to have EVERYTHING on hand. I brought the wiring schematics for the Motec, all the pin-outs and even the schematic for the twins with ALL the vac boost lines color coded - that was the saving grace) The end result was the turbo control valve was closed, the charge control valve open, and the charge relief valve open. What that means was turbo control was closed and NOT proving exhaust to the secondary turbine, the primary turbo was boosting to atmosphere through the charge relief valve and backspooling the secondary turbo through the open charge control valve.... and still making positive manifold pressure.

So after a few hours working through various driveability issues and and other things we made some REALLY nice pulls. End result was 313 RWHP @ 7.5ish PSI and 7k RPM with conservative timing. I'll be back in a few weeks after some hard miles to and from DGRR to up the rev limit, up the boost, and MAYBE play with the timing... probably NOT play with the timing though.

My first time meeting Dave @ KDR and I really can't say enough good things about him. Very proffessional, VERY thourough and not at all afraid of the new software. Between the two of us working together it went incredibly smooth. I'm really looking forward to getting back on his dyno in a few weeks to turn up the boost and start playing around with the sequential turbos... like REALLY looking forward to working with Dave again. GREAT experience with both IRP and KDR today.

Some food for thought though..... and think about this.... stock FD makes 215 RWHP @ 10lbs...... I made 313 RWHP or 146% of RWHP at 75% of boost level, and with a lower redline. The torque curve KEPT CLIMBING strait to ign cut. Brian is very pleased. Brian is also making ~5lbs @ 2400 in 5th running NON-sequential. There's alot left to get out of this motor me thinks

So left to do on the "I Hope This Is the Last Fucking List," list that I have tacked on my wall is

install FTP lenses
Mount Inverter
Wire Inverter
Refinish my 3 other BBS rims
cut and buff the FR fender and bumper
glaze the entire car
Mount new tires that should be here tomorrow.... err today actually
get hub rings machined down
and my brakes still suck, they start off good and get squishy after a few hundred miles... so Thursday morning I'm going to install a new master and see if that helps it at all.

Looks like tonight is going to be another all nighter. I'll take Thursday off, work through the night Wed, nap a little on Thursday morning and then take off for DGRR. Thursday night in VA where we're stopping will be my first real nights sleep in probably 3 weeks.